This invention is a method of simulating in a very short time the desert varnish produced by nature over decades and longer periods of time. The invention further relates to articles of manufacture simulating the surface appearance of natural desert varnish.
Much of the desert areas, both valleys and mountains, found in arid and semi-arid regions of the United States and other parts of the world are covered by a thin coating of generally dark coloration. For example, in the Southern California and Arizona deserts the varnish covers seventy-five percent (75%) of the coherent-stable rock surface including mountain ranges. In some areas of Southern California it has been demonstrated that desert varnish may be formed within twenty-five years after exposure of fresh rock. However, in other reas, such as Arizona, petroglyphs documented to have been formed four hundred to a thousand years ago by scraping away desert varnish coatings have not been covered by the re-estabishment of the desert varnish. In Egypt desert varnish is barely perceptible on pyramids that have existed for 5,000 years since construction.
In desert areas man's activities, such as the construction of dams, roads, preparation of sites for construction and other activities of a like nature have exposed large, unsightly areas of lightly colored glaring scarps of freshly exposed rock which are visible from great distances as unsightly anomalies on the desert landscape. The removal of the natural desert varnish in this fashion occurs in both urban and rural areas and is particularly objectionable in the highly visible mountain areas; for example, where large cuts and fills are made to accommodate building sites.
Nature's timetable in restoring the desert varnish to the freshly exposed rock is much too long; therefore, a desire and need for a method and/or product to be used in restoring the natural desert varnish or covering the exposed areas with articles of manufacture simulating desert varnish coated natural rock constitutes a longstanding, unfulfilled need.